The Mermaid and the Dragon
by Keitorin Asthore
Summary: Astrid saves Hiccup from drowning. Only she's a mermaid, and he's a dragon. Well, kind of a dragon. He's cursed. AU (clearly).


Disclaimer: How to Train Your Dragon belongs to Dreamworks, not me.

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><p>Astrid was perfectly content with her life until he had to go and mess everything up.<p>

She was happy being a mermaid. She loved the glimmering blue scales of her tail and the power behind it, she loved swimming in the cold water of the seas and knowing she was the strongest swimmer of her age. she loved the rich history of her people and the order of their lives. She knew precisely where she fit in.

Some of the other mermaids her age, though, were obsessed with turning fifteen. At fifteen they would come of age and be allowed to go to the surface alone. The other mergirls couldn't stop talking about it, speculating about what they might see, but inevitably their excited discussions were halted by well-meaning older merfolk.

"The surface is beautiful, yes, but it's dangerous," they would warn. "Human sailors won't take kindly to you, and heaven help you if you meet any other creatures that walk on land- or worse, travel the skies."

The mergirls would dissipate after that, splitting from their schools to travel in twos and threes and mumble under their breaths about how _they're so old, they haven't been to the surface in years, they don't remember._

Some of the mergirls tried to go to the surface early. They snuck out from their caves late at night, sometimes alone and sometimes in pairs, trying to swim up to the surface before they could be caught. But they were always caught, and chastised roundly for being so foolish.

Truthfully, Astrid was excited about turning fifteen and seeing the surface. But she listened to her elders. Surely they were right, and the surface was going to be dangerous. And for all those mergirls who kept whispering and giggling about _but what if I fall in love with a human?_- well, clearly they didn't remember their history like they should. They'd all grown up listening to the cautionary tale of the king's youngest daughter, the one who gave up her tongue to the sea witch in exchange for a pair of legs and never came home. Astrid had vowed when she was just a little fry that she would never fall in love with a human. It wasn't sensible. She would grow up under the sea, marry a good strong merman, and live out her three hundred years in the waters before dissolving into foam.

Of course, when she fell in love it wasn't exactly with a human.

It was storming, and it didn't bother Astrid in the slightest. In fact, it was almost fun, the way the underwater currents bounced around her with the pressure of the rain overhead. Thunder rumbled, making the water vibrate, and sometimes the cool murkiness around her flashed with unexpected light. The light was her favorite part. It always startled her, but there was something magical about the way everything around her glowed for just a moment.

Something dark and heavy passed over her and she swam upwards just enough to get a better look. It was a Viking ship, the hull battered and covered with barnacles. She wrinkled her nose. Vikings always left a trail of destruction behind when they traveled through their waters.

Suddenly the water high above her head crashed and rippled. Astrid ducked her head, scanning the dark water for whatever had fallen overboard. It was too heavy for a shield or a sword, what could have possibly-

The dark shape drifted past her and she drew back sharply, her tail whipping around her. It was a dragon. An actual dragon. She'd heard of them, but never seen one, and now here it was, in the water.

She froze where she was, staring at the tangle of limbs and wings and tail. It wasn't moving. Maybe it was drowning. Maybe it was already dead.

The dragon shifted and she caught sight of a pale face, its feature muddled in the dimness of the water. Its mouth was open and only a few bubbles trailed listlessly from its nose. It was dying.

Astrid jetted a little closer, trying to get a better look. To her horror she realized it was young- her age, maybe even a bit younger, with traces of baby fat still lingering its cheeks. It sank further into the depths, a last air bubble dissipating with a forlorn little pop.

Astrid gritted her teeth in frustration. At the last possible second, before the dragon could sink further, she grabbed it by an arm and yanked him up.

"They're going to kill me for going to the surface," she muttered as she dragged the dragon behind her. "But it's not fair for you to die."

The dragon's weight grew heavier and heavier the closer she came to the surface, propelling herself faster and faster towards a rocky outcropping. The water thinned and she screwed up her mouth. She was going to be in _so _much trouble.

Astrid broke the surface for the first time, her hair drooping wetly over her face and tangling in her mouth. Air rushed into her lungs and it took a moment to process the sudden dry coolness filling her mouth and nose. She shook her head, grabbed the dragon around the neck, and yanked its head up so it could reach the air.

"Come on, you," she muttered as she dragged it towards the shore.

She pulled and rolled at its heavy, unwieldy body until it was lying on the sandy shore. Astrid lay half in the water, her elbows resting on the sand. She nearly cried at the itchiness against her skin; sand felt so much different under the water. At least the storm had begun to die down, leaving a rosy sunset in its place.

The dragon lay on its back on the sand, limp and lifeless. Astrid trailed her fingers along its neck, searching for gills, and found none. After a moment she pushed herself a little higher on the shore and rested her ear against its chest. She was rewarded with a faint, thready heartbeat. "I guess you're alive," she said aloud. Her voice sounded different in the open air.

The dragon suddenly bolted upright, smacking his forehead against hers. "Holy fire!" it yelped, gasping for breath.

"Ow," Astrid complained, rubbing her forehead. "Thanks for that." She paused. "You can talk?"

The dragon wheezed heavily, holding up one finger. "Wait a second," it groaned, and he leaned over to vomit water onto the shoreline.

"Gross," she said flatly, her earfins twitching in irritation.

The dragon coughed and gagged for a while, long enough that she started feeling a little sorry for it, and finally leaned back, wiping its mouth with the back of its hand. "I know humans are supposed to kill dragons, but please don't kill me," it begged, leaning back on its elbows. "I already almost died, isn't that close enough?"

Astrid pushed herself up, whipping her tail around and smacking him in the face. "Excuse me, I am a _mermaid_," she said sharply. "Not a human. There's a difference, dragon...thing."

It squinted at her. "Boy," he corrected. "Dragon boy. Not a thing."

"Oh," Astrid said. "Sorry."

He held out his hand. His fingers were long and his nails shaped like talons. "I'm Hiccup," he said.

She burst out laughing. "Hiccup?" she repeated. "What kind of name is Hiccup?"

"It's what the dragons named me!" he protested, pulling his hand back.

"Why'd they name you that?" she asked.

His thin freckled shoulders sagged. "Because I was the littlest hatchling," he confessed, "Yeah, okay, it's a dumb name. But I bet yours isn't much better."

She held out her hand. "It's Astrid," she said.

"Oh," he said. "That's, um...that's pretty." He shook her hand awkwardly. "Thanks for saving me, Astrid."

"You'd better be grateful," she warned him. "If the elders find out I went to the surface, I'll be grounded till I'm a hundred."

"Oh," Hiccup said. "Then yeah. Yeah, I'm really grateful."

He smiled at her. His face was even more freckled than his slim body and there was a gap in his front teeth. It was charming. "So how did you end up in the water?" she asked. "I thought dragons were supposed to fly, not swim."

His face fell. "The Vikings shot me down," he said. "I tried to fly, but…" He drew his tail around. "Look."

Half his tail was gone. The water had washed away the blood, but the edges were raw and ragged. Astrid trailed her fingers along the ripped edge lightly. He winced. "Sorry," she apologized.

"I can't fly without a whole tailfin," he said. "I don't know how I'm going to get back to my nest."

He stared down at his bare knees, his mouth tugging down and his massive wings drooping around his shoulders. His wet hair was beginning to dry in the late afternoon breeze; the ends curled lovingly around his ears and horns. "I didn't know dragons looked like you," Astrid said.

He sighed heavily. "They don't," he said, still staring at his knees. "I was cursed."

She drew back. "Cursed?" she repeated, her earfins flicking. "By what?"

"Don't look at me like that, you can't catch it," Hiccup said, the corner of his mouth pulling up in a wry, lopsided smile. He sighed. "I have a human family. Somewhere. Probably Vikings. But...the dragons took me when I was a baby. Apparently my dad killed an important dragon, and the dragons wanted revenge. They took me and made me one of their own." He gestured at his skinny arms and legs. "It explains...all this. I guess."

"Are you trying to get turned back into a human?" Astrid asked curiously. "A full human?"

He shrugged. "I don't know," he said. "I've been a dragon for as long as I can remember. I don't know the first thing about being a human, or how to find my human parents. Maybe now that my tailfin's half gone, I should try, but…" His voice trailed off. "At the very least, I've got a soul. It's partly dragon now, I guess, but still. When I die, I can go to the Vikings' Valhalla and see my parents then."

She smoothed her wet hair over her shoulder and twisted the ends around her fingers. "That's...good," she said. "I don't know anything about souls, though. I don't have one."

Hiccup frowned. "Really?" he said.

She twined the ends of her hair into a small braid. "Mermaids don't have souls," she told him. "We live our three hundred years, and then we dissolve into foam on the water."

"Oh," Hiccup said. "That's...that's good too."

The sun was setting in earnest now, deep and red against the dark purple of the waves. Astrid blinked. "I've got to go," she said. "I'm not supposed to be here in the first place. And they'll be looking for me if I don't show up for dinner."

She shimmied on her elbows until her tail was in the water again, feeling horribly gawky and ungainly. "Wait!" Hiccup said, sitting upright. "Astrid, will you come back?"

She paused, half in the water. "Maybe," she said. "No. Well...yes. Probably."

He smiled at her, flashing that gap-toothed grin while his green eyes shone in the dimming light. "Well, whenever you come back, I'll be here," he said.

She wriggled into the water, pushing herself away from the roughness of the shore. "I'll remember," she said. "Bye, Hiccup."

Astrid propelled herself back against the surface and flipped beneath it, flicking her glimmering blue tail in Hiccup's direction as a last goodbye. She swam back into the depths, back towards the safety of home, back to normal life.

But for the first time, Astrid wondered what it would be like if she could have an immortal soul instead of just three hundred years.

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><p><strong>Author's Notes:<strong>

WELP.

My second (published) HTTYD bit of a thing, and it's...this?

This was prompted on my tumblr by an anon; they wanted me to write a drabble based on a drawing by hitowersdragons (also of tumblr). So then this happened. I ended up pulling a lot of inspiration from Anderson's original Little Mermaid. And then suddenly Hiccup was saying he was cursed, and I still don't know where that came from.

I honestly have no clue if the drabble ends here or if I'm going to continue it. But I thought I would at least repost it from tumblr.

(But I have thought about what would happen and maybe Astrid goes to the sea witch to get legs and have the curse lifted from Hiccup and maybe they go trying to find his parents...)


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